Last night I added a few dozen new photos to the Winter 2004 photo album. To the end of the snowshoeing pictures, I have added pictures from our last three weekends. They start with a couple of pictures of Silvia and Laura drinking wine behind the Chalet three weeks ago. Two weekends ago we were up at Gary’s for Valentine’s day. We all snowshoed into the woods behind his place and sampled Schnapps from the plastic cups we each had tied around our necks with pink ribbons.

Last weekend, Juliette and I drove to Ottawa to see Bob, Sharlene and Karina. They have a beautiful house on the Gatineau river in Quebec just outside of Ottawa. We arrived very late Friday night with everyone fast asleep, so we snuck up in the dark to the spare room. We awoke Saturday morning to the sound of kids playing in the snow outside. Bob and Sharlene had several other couples over and they had all spent the night camping in the yard and on the river with their kids.

After breakfast, we spent the morning tobogganing behind the house, Then in the afternoon, Juliette, Bob, Serge and I set off on an adventure snowshoe/ski expedition up the mountain across the river from the house. Exhausted by the day, we spent a quiet evening catching up on each other’s lives. We haven’t seen each other for over two years, but like all good friends, the time apart was instantly forgotten.

Sunday, we all skied into the Gatineaux park with Bob suitably slowed down by a sled full of Karina, hot chocolate and lunch. We skied to the Heron hut where we warmed sandwiches in tinfoil over the wood stove and ate a leisurely lunch. A shy by friendly deer even came to visit.